


shorebreak

by cptsuke



Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre Canon, deran runs away
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 11:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20470157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cptsuke/pseuds/cptsuke
Summary: Deran's been running since the moment he could walk. Craig's been chasing after him just as long.





	shorebreak

Deran's been running since the moment he could walk.

But the first time Deran actually tries to run away - that Craig notices - he's five. Craig wouldn't know about it if not for the fact that he's rooting around the garden looking for his favorite ball that Julia had thrown out the window when Craig wouldn't stop annoying her with it, instead he finds his little brother knees up to his chin tucked up in his mom's hydrangeas out by the back fence.

He's big eyed, staring at Craig with red cheeks, a box of crackers and a little nest out of pilfered beach towels. They stare at each other silently until Craig kind of just shrugs it off, leaves him to it.

That night when dinners served that night and Deran's chairs empty, Smurf puts her lips together and Craig half nods towards the back fence and dinner continues in a weird silence. But later that night when they're all supposed to be in bed, Craig watches her crouched out by the pool. He doesn't know what she says but eventually Deran crawls out crying, throwing himself at Smurf's lap. Craig ducks back under his covers, turns his back to the window that looks out over the pool, he doesn't want to know, Deran cries over _everything_.

He doesn't stop running, though his running away starts and stops according to how upset Deran is at any one time – in a house with three older brothers, with Julia and Smurf at their bitchiest, it's hard to keep track of who said what and whose pissed off at who – but a few stand out memorable. The time Pope and Craig find him in a sleeping bag just outside the security gate, glaring at them like they'd been searching for him. The two days he disappears when he's ten, where Smurf ends up dragging him home from the friends house he'd been lying through his teeth to stay.

The one he remembers most, is the one where he doesn't find Deran straight away. But he does find Renn, curled up on one of the deck chairs up in the dunes staring out to sea.

“What are you doing out here?” he asks wrapping his arms around him; the wind at night whips across the water and comes in cold, why anyone would be out here without a tonne of blankets and a fire is beyond him,

“He's over there.” She says instead of answering, nodding her head in the direction of the pier.

“What, who?” He's so surprised he kind of forgets what he's doing out, staring at her wrapped in a big hoody and glaring at him as if he broke into her house, not just stumbled upon her at the beach at midnight.

“Little blonde kid, bout yea high?” She puts her hand at a good couple of feet shorter than Deran is, down by her bent knees and Craig snickers, Deran would hate that. “Gotta mean mouth on him for a toddler.”

“He's like seven,” Craig says, eye searching out the dark shadows beneath the pier, looking for the flash of blonde hair that never hid so well. “What are you doing out here?”

“What's _he_ doing out here?” Renn snaps back.

Craig shrugs, he thinks he can see the shape that's his wayward little brother and the worried feeling that had driven him to the beach is seeping away. Deran can freeze for a little longer while he talks to Renn. She's funny and her hair's long and silky, and Craig doesn't quite know what all that means but when she smiles he wants to be the one that makes her do it.

Renn looks back for a long time before finally shrugging and mumbling,”Don't want to go home.”

She looks like she's telling the truth, but only the barest part of it, and Craig doesn't pry further, no one liked being forced to talk about what they didn't want to.

“You alright?”

She smiles at him, a smaller one than the usual bright sunny one she used at school, but it makes Craig feel good. Another gust of wind batters them and they both hunker down, shoulders hunching against the assault.

“I'm just gonna,” Craig tilts his head towards the pier. “We'll come be back.”

Renn shrugs like she doesn't care and Craig thinks about staying, thinks about sitting down beside her, he's always warm, but he'll be right back, he'll just pick up Deran and come right back..

It's late and the wind under the pier feels extra fucking cold. He doesn't see him at first, the shape he'd seen from up the beach has moved, but there's a gleam of eyes and teeth, the soft sound of rustling fabric from deeper up where the pier meets sand, where the space gets smaller and smaller. Small enough for Craig's idiot brother to hide.

“Come on.” He says to the dark spot.

“No.”

“Come on asshole, we gotta go home, it's cold.”

“No, m'not going back.”

_No, no, No. _Deran yells as Craig grabs an ankle and drags him out of his little hidey hole, drags him out into the open where Craig can wrap his arms around him and haul Deran up and completely out to where he can stand.

He gets a fist in his ear for his troubles but with a little bit of rearranging he finds the best position for Deran's feet and hands to flail around ineffectually,

Deran grabs one of the pier beams as they pass and Craig feels himself jolt back, as he loses his balance in the soft sand and they fall down in the damp. Deran's scrabbling up, bee-lining for the space Craig doesn't fit, but he's trailing a blanket and Craig grabs that, watches as Deran flips backwards into the sand when the blanket pulls tight. He looks like a wet cat as he yanks at the blanket, trying to loose Craig's hold, but Craig jerks it back and Deran falls face forward into the sand. He comes up spluttering but Craig's on him quick, wraps his arms around him, sitting in the cold sand and just holds him.

“_Come on, calm down, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay,” _he says into Deran's hair till he's no longer struggling, no longer swinging fists, just kind of clutching onto Craig's shirt, burrowing his arms under his hoody.

Eventually, when he's sure he's not going to be fighting a hell cat, Craig staggers to his feet, hoisting Deran's weight up with his own. Craig's big - everyone tells him that, he towers over his classmates with too long arms and legs – but he struggles for a moment, Deran's getting bigger too he thinks with a weird sort of sadness.

Craig doesn't know what he's doing, he just wants everything to be fine. He can feel an edge grinding his teeth, the sort of feeling that tightens the muscles in his shoulders and makes his hands clench into fists. He needs to get high, mellow himself the fuck out, where the sight of Deran's big eyes in the dark of the pier, Renn's blue fingertips don't make him want to start hitting things til someone hurts worse than they do.

Craig doesn't want to be that guy, he's that guy enough when his mom says so. Ever since his last growth spurt that put him slight above eye level with Pope, he's grown out of the cute little kid no one noticed til he threw sand in someone's eyes, now he just has to exist and bank guards watch him warily like he's going to break out a spray can or throw a brick through a window.

His arms tighten around Deran as he walks them back to Renn, walking careful with Deran's extra weight.

“Come on, we'll lock my door, I'll light a blunt and you can try and see if you can actually get any m&ms in my mouth this time.”

Deran sniffles loudly near his ear but he fires a back a hot snappy, “Fuck off, I'll get them all in.”

Craig laughs and can feel Deran's giggle in the hot breaths on his neck.

Renn's watching them make their way back up the beach, and Craig tries not to feel too self-conscious.

“Wait!” Deran suddenly yells out, feet kicking out as he straightens up and Craig stops.

“What?” He snaps back, his arms already burn from all of Deran's wiggling.

Deran bites his lip and looks for all the world like he's not going to say anything.

Craig gives a big put upon sigh, does a shuffling step like he's going to keep walking.

“No, wait!” Deran's wriggling for real now, his weight shifting and making it hard for Craig, his hands start to slip.

Craig shifts his grip, shoves his hands under Deran's armpits and holds him out at arms length. He can't hold the stance for long, but it's worth the effort just to see Deran dangling silently in front of him. He wonders if Renn thinks he's strong. He is, he thinks. But is that something she likes?

“What?” He asks, gives him a little shake when Deran bites his lip again. “I swear to god, Deran..”

“My lamb! I left it! _You_ made me leave it!” He blurts out. He's looking back at the pier and Craig sighs. _Of course._

He sets Deran down on the ground, then grabs his collar as he tries to make a run for it.

“No, I'll get it.”

“Him.” Deran corrects and Craig's eyes roll, it's a stuffed toy for fucks sake.

“I'll get _him_. You say here with Renn.”

“You trusting me with your little brother, Cody?” Renn asks. She sounds amused, he thinks, god Craig hope she's not angry.

“Watch out for his teeth,” he says with a smile and a shrug, “He bites like a motherfucker.”

Deran's bottom lip sticks out.

“Don't run off and make Renn chase you, k?”

“You make me run, and I'll kick your ass kiddo.” Renn says, her fingers sticking out of the sleeves of her hoody as she does little fingerguns at Deran.

They should be fine, Craig thinks, Renn curled up on the deck chair, Deran with hands full of his blanket, staring at Renn and pretending he's not.

Renn pokes at Deran with a foot as Craig stalks back to the pier, he hears her ask “What's got you out here?” as Deran takes a step back.

But he's not running, not yet. Craig swears to god, he better not run again.

By the time Craig's back Deran's moved so he's crouched at the end of the deckchair, his and Renn's heads ducked close. It's weird seeing Deran so close to someone but they're trying to talk over the sound of the wind and the waves, so maybe the closeness isn't so strange.

“What?” He asks, catching the tail end of Renn saying something about her mom's boyfriend and Craig wonders if that has something to do with why she's out here in the middle of the night.

Renn does a cute little stretch, her feet stretching the fabric of her hoody where they're tucked up under it, her smile a gleam of teeth in the haze of far off streetlights.

“He'll be gone soon enough,” She says with a little shrug like she doesn't care either way, “Mom's boyfriends never last.”

Smurf was the same, although calling the men she went through boyfriends was more than generous, but she'd never allow any one of them to hurt her sons.

That was solely for her.

He holds out the toy for Deran, staggers when instead he just leaps at Craig and not dropping him takes all his concentration. Once he's fairly sure he's not gonna dump him in the sand, Craig looks back up at Renn, whose smiling like he's clowning just for her, not simply dealing with a bratty little brother.

“You wanna come home too?”

He doesn't know why he asks, Smurf hates when they bring people home, especially girls. She hates all of Baz's girlfriends and sometimes Craig thinks maybe Baz does too. Why else would he keep pushing them into Smurf's face otherwise? Craig likes Renn, he doesn't want Smurf to make her sad. Maybe he could sneak her in, get her out before Smurf even knows in the morning.

“Oh hell no.” Renn laughs, but it doesn't sound good like before, just bitter and tired.

Deran stares at her with the one eye he's not got jammed up against Craig.

Craig hovers, he doesn't want to leave her, it's cold and dark, and it's easy to imagine some crazy guy in a hockey mask just waiting for them to be all alone.

Another gust of wind buffets against them, whipping sand against their legs and Deran curls in closer. Craig loosens his arms, lets Deran hold his own weight for a moment as he fiddles around and manages to awkwardly zip the hoody up over his new barnacle, dragging the zip up until there's just a mop of blond hair sticking out the top.

“Go home, Cody.” Renn says it like forgiveness and Craig nods.

“See you round.” He says turning away.

“Hey, you forgot this!” Renn yells after he gets a couple of steps away, and Craig turns to see her holding Deran's blanket up from where he left it on the chair, like Craig's gonna go back and take it from her.

“Keep it!” He shouts back. “I'll get it later!”

His legs burn a little as sand changes to pavement, and he sighs, feeling maybe he missed out on something, though he doesn't know what.

“Sorry.” Deran mumbles into his chest and Craig shrugs.

“Do you think Renn likes m&ms?”

“No, girls are gross.” Deran grumbles, which isn't an answer at all, because he's a baby and he sucks.

“You're gross.” Craig retorts back and laughs as Deran tries to shove him away while trapped under his hoody.

He hefts Deran a bit further up, he's got a long walk ahead of him but he thinks, maybe he can take m&ms out to Renn tomorrow. Or like leftovers or something, Smurf said she's making chicken tomorrow night. That'd be cool, get her one of his good fluffy hoodys and some food and they can have like a beach party, but just the two of them. Maybe Renn'll smile at him again.


End file.
